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Mr Sellgren said “I have enjoyed my time at Newcastle and send my best wishes to the dedicated team of staff and partners with whom it has been a pleasure to have worked.”

Issues raised about the election included:

A batch of 391 postal votes with UK addresses was not sent for printing, due to staff failing to correctly operate the elections software. Sixty-eight voters received replacement packs after complaining, leaving 323 unable to vote;

Another batch of 204 postal votes with overseas addresses was never sent for printing;

Voting applications from 439 people were not processed in time because staff were struggling to deal with the volume of applications received;

Another 509 applicants were registered in time, but were not added to polling station registers because software had not been switched to ‘election mode’;

Once these registration problems were uncovered 429 people – less than half of those affected – were added to polling station registers on the day of the election;

Amid the confusion, two people were wrongly issued with ballot papers and voted, despite applying after the registration deadline.